When the Last One Falls
by ardhrianna
Summary: SLASH SLASH SLASH. This is your final warning! SLASH AHEAD. Yami/Seto.


SUMMARY: Seto/Yami SLASH. Don't like it, don't read it. Angsty.  
  
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. I wish I owned Yami Bakura. And Kaiba. And Malik. And maybe even Yami. Hey, a girl can dream.  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Inspired by the 3 Doors Down song, "Here Without You". Blame it on Kris, who wanted me to write her a fic using that song. Many, many thanks to both Kris and Lady Pluto, who read over this fic and assured me that it did make sense.  
  
DEDICATION: Kris, as always.  
  
*******  
  
WHEN THE LAST ONE FALLS  
  
Sitting on top of the world, with nothing to show for it.  
  
Blue eyes tiredly examined the flat surface of the laptop, not really reading the words scrolling across its plasma surface. His mind was elsewhere, on a certain someone.  
  
So near, and yet so far away.  
  
Tiredly, he closed his laptop, shutting down without even saving his work. Work didn't matter, not when he had nothing to work for. Not anymore. He'd thrown that all away the day he left a letter on his sleeping lover's pillow, telling him it was over. He was a coward, and he deserved what he got.  
  
"Life is over-rated," he muttered as he stalked towards the door of his office. No sense staying in a place haunted by memories of the past.  
  
****  
  
Red eyes, eyes that didn't quite focus, stared out the window at the office tower that dominated the skyline before him. For as long as he could remember, that tower had represented many things. Opponent. Rival. Ally. Friend. And then later, much later, lover.  
  
The past was so much better than the present. Now, that silver and black office tower represented nothing except chances lost and things left unsaid.  
  
"A hundred days have made me older," he softly quoted to himself, half- addressing the dark tower in the distance. "But it's been longer, much longer than that. Do you still think of me? Did you love me at all? Or was your love just one of a thousand lies you told me?"  
  
The office tower remained silent, giving him no peace, and no answers.  
  
****  
  
Parties were useless, decided Seto Kaiba. People stood around, talked, and drank. Not unlike any other day of the week, really. So the reason for having a party in the first place was quite lost on him, even though the parties he gave made his employees very happy.  
  
Then he saw it - a flash of crimson and gold from across the room. The very sight of the familiar colours made his gut twist in an unfamiliar emotion - guilt.  
  
"He can't be here. why would he come to a Kaiba Corp party?" Predictably, no answers were forthcoming. At least not until *he* approached.  
  
"Kaiba." The voice was cool, calm, and oh-so-familiar.  
  
"Yami." His own answer was detached, unemotional. A complete opposite to how he felt inside. "What brings you here?"  
  
"Ishizu asked me to be her date for the night. I believe Kaiba Corp is funding her next expedition to Egypt?"  
  
Kaiba nodded. "The least I could do for her."  
  
"Yes, I imagine it was." Yami turned to survey the people crowded into the room. "Who are all these people?"  
  
"Employees and their families." Kaiba shrugged. "Once or twice a year, I give them a party. Keeps them happy and productive."  
  
"A rather cold way of looking at it," observed Yami.  
  
"What did you expect from one who is, as you said yourself, 'heartless'?"  
  
Yami didn't even flinch. "You have a heart in there somewhere, Seto Kaiba. It's just hard to find sometimes." Kaiba snorted and Yami held up a hand. "You wouldn't be doing this for Ishizu if you didn't have a heart. Despite what everyone may think, I know you're not made of stone, Seto."  
  
Then Yami was gone, disappearing into the throng of employees like the spirit he truly was. Kaiba stared after him, mind running a thousand miles a minute.  
  
****  
  
Kaiba found Yami again with Ishizu a few hours later, talking to one of his more senior game managers. As he approached, Ishizu looked up from the conversation and smiled before drawing the man away. Yami was alone, his eyes watching Kaiba approach with cool detachment that Kaiba wished he himself felt.  
  
"Yami."  
  
"We meet again."  
  
"Are you. are you enjoying yourself?" Inwardly, Kaiba cringed at how impersonal he sounded.  
  
"It's a favour for Ishizu." Yami sighed. "I've never been good with people."  
  
Kaiba smiled despite himself. "You work in a game shop. You have to be good with people to do that."  
  
"I should have said, I don't like people. I never know what to say. Or how to relate to them."  
  
"I feel the same way."  
  
Yami glanced up at his taller companion. "I suppose you would."  
  
An uncomfortable silence fell, neither one willing to breach the tentative peace they'd achieved this night. Finally Kaiba turned to face Yami. "Yami."  
  
Yami shook his head. "Don't."  
  
"I have to." When Yami didn't protest further, Kaiba went on, "I wanted to say. I wanted to apologize."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"For ending it the way I did. I shouldn't have done that to you. Not after all you've done for me."  
  
"I knew it wasn't meant to last," Yami finally said, eyes cast downwards. "I always knew you wouldn't stay. I just didn't expect you to end it the way you did. although I suppose I should have. A letter on a pillow *is* more your style than telling me over the phone, or face-to-face."  
  
Kaiba cringed a little. "Yami-"  
  
"What do you want from me, Seto Kaiba? Forgiveness? Another chance?"  
  
"No. Yes. I don't know." Kaiba stared at the wall before taking a deep breath and trying again. "I just wanted to make things right between us."  
  
"That won't be easy," said Yami.  
  
"I have to try. You're right, you know. I do have a heart buried somewhere this chest of mine."  
  
"I used to have one."  
  
"You have one, Yami. you have the biggest heart of anyone I've ever known."  
  
"Maybe I did once." Yami looked up into Kaiba's face, crimson eyes sad. "I had a lot of things once. But those things are part of my past now, and sometimes the past is better best forgotten."  
  
Kaiba looked away from that penetrating stare, hating himself for asking, yet knowing he had to do it anyway. "Do you still-"  
  
Yami sighed, knowing the question even as he didn't let Kaiba complete it. "Yes."  
  
"No matter what?" Kaiba's voice was soft, a hint of uncertainty in it. He wasn't used to not being in control of his emotions.  
  
"I'll always love you," Yami whispered, reaching up to touch the pale face of his former lover one last time. "When all is said and done, no matter where I go and where you go, I will still love you."  
  
"Can't we."  
  
"Maybe once upon a time, we could have tried again. But we both know that happy ever after doesn't work for people like us. Goodbye, Seto."  
  
As the last word fell, echoing in the silence that had fallen between them, Yami smiled sadly and walked away. 


End file.
